A Brief Status Review and Management Update of BC Steelhead

1. A Brief Status Review and Management Update of BC Steelhead BC Ministry of Environment Fish & Wildlife Branch Prepared for West Coast Steelhead Management Meeting March 4-5, 2008 Boise, Idaho.

2. Outline • Stocks and CU’s • Reference Points and “Management Zones” • Status • Abundance Trends • Trends in Sport Fishery and Stocking • Policies on Stocking and Interception • Habitat Management Update

3. Steelhead Range within BC

4. Alsek North Coast MPG South Interior MPG Northern Transition South Coast MPG Southern Transition

5. Steelhead Conservation Units (Parkinson et al. 2005)

6. Reference points and “management zones” (Johnston et al. 2000)

7. Steelhead Status for 21 Conservation Units (Ahrens 2004)

8. Abundance and Trends Some Specific Examples

9. Wild Adult Abundance Smolt Abundance Smolt to Adult Survival Keogh River

10. Englishman Peak Count Englishman Winters Tsitika River Summers Heber River Summers

11. South Mainland Coast Winters

12. Little Campbell No data Little Campbell Winters

13. Coquihalla Coquihalla Summers

14. Thompson Escapement Thompson

15. Chilko Peak Count Chilko

16. Dean Catch Dean CPUE Dean River Summers

17. Skeena Summers

18. No Data Nass Summers

19. Summary of Recent Trends • Evidence of a recent decline or downward shift in abundance in northern stocks • The major Interior Fraser stocks have recently declined to among the lowest levels recorded. • South coast stocks tributary to Georgia Basin have remained at relatively low abundance, many since the early 1990’s • West coast Vancouver Island stocks have remained at relatively modest levels since early 1990s’.

20. Sport Fishery Update

21. BC Steelhead Sport Fishing Effort

22. Catch Per Anglerday

23. Recent Catch History

24. The distribution of anglerdays in 1968 and 2006 1968 – 222 streams Anglerdays 2006 – 169 streams

25. 1968 A comparison of the top-ten utilized streams, 1968 vs 2006 Anglerdays 2006 Spatial adjustment toward northern streams

26. 1968 A comparison of the top-ten utilized streams, 1968 vs 2006 Anglerdays 2006 …and increased focus on hatchery supported fisheries.

27. By and large, the advent of steelhead hatchery streams in BC…. • Came about as a response to federal plans to enhance pacific salmon • Intended to mitigate against increased interspecific juvenile competition and increased adult interceptions

28. Update - Streams Stocked with Hatchery Steelhead There are 423 stocks in 391 watersheds. We’ve stocked as much as 18% of BC’s steelhead streams, but for a brief time.

29. BC Steelhead Stream Classification Policy • strong emphasis on wild stock conservation • catch and release sport fishing on wild stocks, province wide • procedures and conditions regarding the designation of “hatchery-augmented” streams • framework for assessment (abundance based)

30. Other Policies - Interception Update • Federal Policy • Steelhead not part of Federal Wild Salmon Policy • mandatory release from salmon gillnet and seine fisheries, but many fisheries remain unselective • Skeena seine and gillnet fisheries – F based steelhead policies • Fraser seine and gillnet fisheries – was recently an F based policy; moving toward protecting a proportion of the run in only some gillnet fisheries?? • Dean channel fisheries – mandatory weedline • International – Article IX: Steelhead • “In fulfilling their functions, the Panels and Commission shall take into account the conservation of steelhead.” • In general, mortality rates due to bycatch in salmon fisheries have been increasing since the late 1990’s.

31. Water Mgmt Update • Water supply issues in southern third of BC • Licencing limited to surface waters • Ground water remains unlicenced commodity (exception for mega-projects; EA’s) • Water Act does not explicitly deal with values other than was is termed “benefitial use” (i.e. direct use). • Water shortage and flows for values other than for domestic, agriculture or industrial use are being addressed in an increasing number of places through WUP processes (BC Hydro) and localized watershed planning initiatives. • Proposals for IPP’s everywhere

32. Update - Land Mgmt and Issues • Private Lands • RAR – new regulation applicable to new development in or about riparian areas. • Very limited in scope • No broad scale riparian restoration initiatives or incentives on private lands, only project scale. • Access issues • Forest Lands • Pine Beetle – hydrologic change; cattle access to rivers • Riparian protection (S1-S6, LRMP’s) • Community Watershed designation where ECA is limited. • Oil, gas and mining exploration (e.g. Sacred Headwaters Coal Bed Methane) • Carbon Credits

33. Mountain Pine Beetle in BC

34. Fish Habitat Projects • LWD • Fertilization • Substrate placement • Channel construction or modification • $3.5 million/year

35. Train Wrecks

36. Cheakamus August 5, 2005

37. Thompson August 1, 2006

38. Robert Ahrens Dana Atagi Mark Beere Robert Bison Michael Burwash Alan Caverly James Craig Josh Korman Don McCubbing Mike McCulloch Dean Peard Ron Ptolemy Bruce Ward Craig Wightman Lee Williston Greg Wilson Parkinson et al. 2005 Johnston et al. 2000 Ahrens 2004 McKusker et al. 2000 Acknowledgements Thank You.